The buffalo, the lion and Nelson Mandela

My question is: why? Why, exactly, is it necessary to have a politician’s face on our money?

Look, leave the poor man alone. Nelson Mandela’s had enough. He’s old and frail and deserves every bit of rest he gets. He does not need to have his mug plastered over the R50 note.

I know he probably doesn’t need to nip down to the corner shop anymore for rolling papers and a kit kat, but if he did, I’d imagine Nelson Mandela would probably be a little creeped out every time he paid for them. And can you imagine the eyes of the cashier, sliding from the note, to Mandela, to the note. â€œHey, aren’t you…” Yeah, that’s me. No, really, hardly anybody notices. It’s nothing. Can I have my chocolate bar please?

I don’t need to tell you about Madiba’s achievements. You’re on this website. Ergo, you are almost certainly South African, so you know. Even if you’re an AWB nationalist from the middle of the Free State (and good heavens, there seem to be a lot of you who’ve moved to the UK) then you’ll still know what he’s done. The man might have said he would never wish to be viewed as a god, instead only wishing to be viewed as a fallible man, a human being, but when your face gets onto your country’s money, I think you can take it as read that you’re a little bit past that stage.

One of the finest things about our country is that our currency is dominated by animals. These, if you ask me (and of course you do) are the real heroes of South Africa. How much have the lion, the buffalo, done for our country? They’ve brought in squintillions of bucks in tourism. Without them, we’d be dead, not just in the water but on land too. Putting them on our banknotes was an inspired act: something that nobody, no matter what political persuasion or religious inclination, could argue with.

But Mandela? It just feels wrong. To make him into money is to turn him into an icon. That’s not a job for us. If anything, it’s a job for the generations that come later, when his legacy (and it will last for centuries) can be properly judged.

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